Sander's Dukan Diary

[wheesht]

Well done on getting down under 200lbs! (although it hurts my brain to think in pounds instead of stones and pounds like we do over here ).

You are doing so well - more than halfway to your goal!

I liked what you said about not cringing when you look in the mirror any more. I don't know if you were like me but every time I used to look in the mirror horrible, negative thoughts would go through my head and I would call myself the most terrible names - fat, ugly, useless, obese etc etc. No wonder I had no confidence!

We are so cruel to ourselves and are our own worst enemies at times.

But that's all changed now. Can look in the mirror and get fluttery feelings of excitement and pride at how far I have come, even though I still have a way to go. No more negative comments from my inner self now! Do you find that too?

 

[Sander23]

Thanks Wheesht! Definitely the inner voice has quieted on the negativity about my looks - now I stop and think Wow - I look like that now? Look how flat my bottom and tummy are? But then the inner voice starts up on the "You need a reward for being so good, one little biscuit wouldn't hurt, you've been so good, you deserve a treat....on and on and on" So then I have to look at how far I still have to go - this would be bathing suit donning time and say to myself, stay away from the biscuits and you can go to the beach in December when everyone is freezing and that will make it all worth it!

 

[wheesht]

Oh my goodness - we must share the same inner voice! I've always 'rewarded' myself with food. I 'deserve' it so why shouldn't I have it?

Is funny, I was talking about this with one of my sisters the other day. We blame it all on my poor mum. She used to reward us for good behaviour with sweets etc when we were young and I think that has stuck with us. My sister rewards herself with chocolate. I don't have a sweet tooth and my 'rewards' are of the peanuts, crisps, cheese and alcohol variety.

Have tried to make sure that I don't do the same with my children. Is hard not to fall into the same cycle though.

Like you say, so much better to focus on non food rewards.

 

[Sander23]

Same here, I reward for being good was always a cookie, a piece of pie, a bag of crisps, etc. We didn't have a lot in the house, so it was a treat and I didn't get them often. So as an adult, I kept them around just to have and I have had lots! My skinny hubby's mother also gives out treats as a reward - but they were not as unusual in their house, so my hubby didn't find them motivational. For my son, I have tried to balance the approach, so he is a character. He spent the day with friends on Saturday and ate nothing but junk food, I picked him up to bring him home and he said - "Mom, I feel like crap, I gonna have to eat pure protein tomorrow!" He then proceeded to eat all my food!

 

[wheesht]

For my son, I have tried to balance the approach, so he is a character. He spent the day with friends on Saturday and ate nothing but junk food, I picked him up to bring him home and he said - "Mom, I feel like crap, I gonna have to eat pure protein tomorrow!" He then proceeded to eat all my food!

Haha, really funny! He sounds brilliant!

 

[Sander23]

He is brilliant! I am going to miss him when he goes off to his adult life in 4 years He is really proud of me for succeeding (finally it appears) and is the biggest Dukan cheerleader. He is trying to get everyone he knows that is overweight to give it a try. When my motivation flags, I just think I can't fail yet again, I am going to prove that I can do this and at least spend a couple years of my child's formative years at a healthy weight!

 

[Sander23]

Its Wednesday! I've been feeling poorly this week, digestive issue are causing problems and I've been eating my normal foods, so I'm confused. I've cut out the caffeine and upped the water, but my GI tract is still in major revolt. I'm cutting out all the spices today and just eating bland foods, hopefully that will help. It seemed for a time that the Dukan eating plan was fixing me up, but perhaps it was just the looser clothes - now that my pants fit again there is a slight pressure on my abdomen when I sit at my desk. I just thought of this, so I am going to go change into a loose dress and see what happens today!

 

[Lausanne]

Sorry to hear you not feeling 100%. Before Dukan I would have suffered a mild form of IBS but since starting it's got so much better. What will trigger me still though is chewing gum and too much fruit alcohol sugars (xylitol, mannitol etc) Could these be your culprits?

 

[Sander23]

Thanks for the suggestion - those do cause me problems as well, so I avoid them. Sometimes I feel like my digestive tract has its own agenda. When I went in for my upper and lower GI - fun experience- they found lots of general inflammation caused by my food allergies and my hiatal hernia, but no sign of any real damage or systemic problem. So I was told to watch my diet, eat small meals, and lose weight. The Dukan plan has been really good for me since I cut out the milk products, but the last week or so it seems to be not as effective. And I haven't changed a thing. The looser clothes did help a bit yesterday, but my intestines are still achy and grumbly. Took a much longer walk this morning and will try and not sit so much, maybe it will improve.
Fashion wise I was quite proud of myself yesterday though - I got a loose dress out then added a sweater that I had accidentally shrunk last year and belted it at the waist and looked quite slim - My husband and son both thought I had bought new clothes and I received lots of compliments when we went out shopping (small town life, everyone knows everyone) - I thought I would look frumpy - but it was really sharp. Today I'm still in yoga pants and hoodie

 

[wheesht]

Sorry to hear you are having tummy problems - that's not so good. Strange it should flare up all of a sudden!

The only dukan friendly suggestion I can offer is boiled water (urgh) - not much help I imagine! Do you think it might be a tummy bug or do you think it is your old problems resurfacing?

Liking the sound of the outfit, Trinny! (Do you get Trinny and Susannah on telly over there? I do hope not - they are a nightmare! :8855

 

[Sander23]

Heh - Trinny! We got "What Not To Wear" on BBC America until they decided to do a US version - then they stopped sending over the UK feed. I much preferred Trinny and Susannah over Stacey London and they guy they chose as her cohost.

I think maybe it was tummy bug, my hubby has is now and I am feeling better! PLus, I lost 5 pounds - probably due to extra walking, water, and no tolerated items :-0

Tomorrow morning I get on the plane for the trip to the parents - 15 hours travel time due to 3 plane changes and layovers. Going to be scavenging food at airports and trying to stay sane. Tonight we have the local high school football game to go cheer at, but its getting chilly!

 

[Lausanne]

:bliss::bliss::bliss:​

Excellent weight loss, yay for you! Safe journey - hope not too stressful with all the flight changes. Will be nice to catch up with your folks, bet you'll get lots of compliments on your new slimmer self. Xx

 

[CaledoniaDreaming]

That's great weight loss. I've found that having no tolerated items makes me lose faster and stops me craving other non-tolerated things like banoffee pie - in fact, last night I was craving spinach soup! Enjoy the trip to your parents, I know they'll be really proud of you.

 

[wheesht]

Wow - fab loss! :banana dancer: Well done Sanders - that tummy bug turned out to be your friend!

Have a lovely time with your parents

 

[Sander23]

Back from the parents - still sane! They tried really hard to not tempt me with forbidden foods, so I had a pretty good week food wise. My dad is on all sorts of medicines for his heart and has a very restrictive diet, but some the things he has to eat are potatoes and bananas (potassium) so he was having a hard time accepting that I wasn't going to eat them. He was very happy to see my weight down and wants to make sure I get the rest of it off. He doesn't want me to have all the health problems he has, even though he never was extremely overweight his diet was not a healthy one. Dad is 80 and mom just turned 88, they are both in poor health but I think their desire to outlive each other is keeping them going - they argue constantly! My husband and I seldom argue so I am not used to it anymore My scales show me down 3 pounds from when I left - we will see how the weigh in goes on Thursday!

 

[couteaux]

Wow, well done losing after a break away! Sounds like your folks were very supportive which makes all the difference

Good luck for the official WI on Thurs x

 

[Sander23]

Thanks! My flight back was wicked and I ate poorly, but not much I am doing a couple of PP days because when I am with others I tend to do multiple PV days which is not the best, but if I just eat meat all day I hear no end of lectures - so publicly my diet is protein and vegetables. When I am at home or by myself I do the PP days. So last week at my folks I had my gallette for breakfast, chicken breast or tuna for lunch, soy yogurt for tea, and then either steak or fish or chicken for dinner along with some steamed veggies or a green salad. They don't eat lunch themselves, so I could just go into the kitchen and grab a protein without anyone noticing what I was eating - especially since I have lunch during my mom's favorite TV show

Yesterday I had gallette for breakfast, chicken breast for lunch, soy yogurt for tea and chicken and beef sauteed with some garlic, cumin, green onion, paprika, salt and pepper and topped with a tablespoon of ff sour cream and cilantro with a sf jelly for desert.

 

[Sander23]

Feeling crummy today, might have to go to the doctor but will try the home remedies first

 

[Sander23]

I just did some math and figured out that I have been on cruise of 151 days - and I still have 121 days to go. That didn't mesh at all with the target date, even though I pulled my stats from the Dukan site originally - so I am moving my target date to match the actual days targeted for cruise which is quite a bit longer - a little over a month longer - which I'm happy about - I had a STS week and I feel like I am starting to have a harder time budging weight. I was starting to get depressed that I was going to not meet my goal date (which happened to coincide with my birthday). I am still not sure why the Dukan site gave me a day that was off by so far when they gave me the correct number of days for each phase. I am thankful that I posted how long cruise was going to last in this diary so I could double-check.

I was seriously thinking of quitting, just because I am so tired, physically and mentally. I am trying to keep my motivation up and stay positive, but I am flagging. Now I feel a little bit more like I can still succeed :->

I wrote either in this diary or on one of my blog posts about my tendency to just give the right answers, I was starting to feel like I was going to turn that page with my Dukaneering - I know all the right answers and I will just say I did it right and do what I want and then when I fail, it will just be the diet that didn't work because I did everything right. Up to this point when I have eaten something wrong, I have admitted it and tried to figure out how I could have done better or just accepted that the situation wasn't going to allow me to make the proper choices. But I am started to get really tempted to just go off the rails and eat whatever but not acknowledge it. This would be my doom and would set me right back on the road to where I started.
Thanks for letting me vent!

 

[Sander23]

Still hanging in there for the most part - I let myself have a bite of bread and a taste of desert when we went out for my hubbies birthday dinner and they weren't near as tasty as I remember, so I don't feel the pull to go back to pre-Dukan eating habits as strongly as I was feeling.

Have pulled up some interesting trivia from the Web that I am pondering - one has to do with acidity levels in the blood the other with the anxiety of choice. First, supposedly if you have high acid levels in your blood - pH greater than 7.4 you are more susceptible to viruses and infection. High blood acidity can be caused by eating too much red meat and too few fruits and vegetables. Eating food high in potassium and magnesium is supposed to return your blood acidity back to neutral. If you are fighting a virus you are recommended to add a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to an 8 ounce glass of water 1 to 2 times a day to make your blood less hospitable to the virus... I tried this and I did get better faster than the rest of my family who refused to drink the stuff (I found it kind of tasty), but who knows it could be the placebo effect! I also switched out several planned beef meals to chicken, turkey and fish and stopped using roast beef for my snacks for a few days.
Next item, too many choices lead to higher anxiety and stress levels, to reduce your stress, reduce the number of choices that you make daily. Dukan actually does this for me, which may be one of the reasons why I like it. When making choices, focus on the internal reasons for the choice rather than external expectations, that way your choice is totally relevant to your situation. Embrace the choice you made and do not grieve for the options that you left behind. Thinking about these last two items are helping me to get over this motivational slump. I think I was starting to move too much towards being externally motivated and focusing too much on the things that I gave up when I decided to use this plan for my weight loss, which was depressing me.